


The Paths We Choose

by ShingekiNoFeels



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: College AU, F/F, F/M, M/M, jeanmarco, yes this will turn out to be jeanmarco
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-16
Updated: 2014-08-24
Packaged: 2018-02-09 02:06:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1964847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShingekiNoFeels/pseuds/ShingekiNoFeels
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean Kirschtein recently finished his senior year of high school and is now starting his first year of college. However, not everything goes as perfectly as he hoped.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Reminiscence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so this is the first fic that I've ever written. I hope it's not complete trash. I do plan on continuing this. I will try my best to update it at least once a week. Thank you so so so much to my beta-readers nubofficial and confirmed_by_coffee. So, I hope you enjoy reading!

This is it. This is the moment that every high school student dreams of. I walk up the stairs, scan my card, and open the doors. I see a large room with a couch and a rather large television set. I notice doors farther away. Those must be the dorms. I walk through the doors and find a row of other doors. My dorm is 3B. All I see here are A’s. I must be on the second floor then. I see an elevator off in the distance and walk over there. I reach to click the button, when I notice a sign

**OUT OF ORDER: PLEASE USE STAIRS**

Great. I see an unmarked door next to the elevator and assume that’s the stairwell. I start to walk up the stairs, and I begin to think about my last day of high school…

* * *

 

My alarm went off at 6:30 in the morning, but I was already awake. I couldn’t have been more eager to start the day. I think everyone would be eager to get their last day of high school over with. I stopped my alarm from screaming at me and hopped out of bed. I shook off the clothes I wore to bed, grabbed a towel, and headed for the shower. I’ve always loved to take long, warm showers in the morning. It’s relaxing.  
When I finished my shower, I went back to my room and picked up my phone. As I thought, I had a few unread messages.

**From: Connie**  
 **DUDE! It’s the last day of school! ARE YOU PSYCHED OR WHAT!?**

**From: Connie**  
 **HOW CAN YOU BE ASLEEP RIGHT NOW WAKE UP AND TALK TO ME!**

**From: Connie**  
 **Jeeeeaaaaaaaaaan**

**From: Connie**  
 **JEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAANNN**

**From: Thomas**  
 **Good morning babe! Hope you slept well! I can’t wait to see you today! <3**

The last text I read made me smile. I had been dating Thomas for over three years. We started dating my sophomore year of high school, and we hit it off instantly. We were practically inseparable. Still were after three years. He would always leave me good morning texts to wake to. He’s been doing it for quite some time, but it still made me smile whenever I read them.

I put my phone back down on the dresser and went to my closet. I pulled out my favorite pair of blue jeans with a black Green Day T-shirt I got at a concert. I threw it on quickly, grabbed my phone, and headed downstairs. As I thought, there was nobody else home. My parents both had weird work schedules. Since my mom was a nurse, her hours would alternate frequently. My dad ran his own mechanics store a ways down the road. That took up a lot of his time.

By this time, I’m used to being home alone. I walked into the kitchen, grabbed a couple pieces of bread, and popped them in the toaster. While I waited for that to finish, I started to make the coffee. While it was still brewing, I heard my toast pop out of the toaster. “Shit…” I sighed. It was completely black. I’ve had worse. I wrapped the toast up in a paper towel and poured the now finished coffee in a cup. I drank it black. All of my friends cringed whenever I drank it that way. They didn’t understand how anyone could drink it like that, but I like it. I took a sip while walking out the door. I got in my old, silver Ford truck and left my driveway.

I only lived about ten or fifteen minutes away from my school, but I liked to get there earlier so I had time to mingle. I ate the toast and drank the coffee on the way there. When I got to the school and walked through the front door, I was immediately bombarded by a tiny guy with a buzz cut.

“Jean! Why didn’t you answer any of my texts, man!?”

“Because you always text me at weird hours! Why the hell can’t you be asleep at 5 am like a normal person!?”

“Life’s too short, Jean.” Connie said with a grin.

“Yeah, whatever…” I said while rolling my eyes. As I looked through the long hallway in front of me, I could make out two big figures approaching us. “Well if it isn’t Bert and Ernie!” I laughed.

Reiner and Bertholdt were both seniors like me. Reiner was the star quarter back for our football team. All the girls in our school were in love with him at some point in time. Sadly, He had to break all of their hearts when he started going out with Bertholdt. Bertholdt was one of the fastest people on our cross country team. He was over six feet tall with extremely long legs. It was easy for him to cover large distances with a few strides. Although he was excelling at sports just like Reiner, he didn’t get very much attention. He got nervous very easily and didn’t like to talk to people he didn’t really know. He tended to stay to himself and a small group of friends. I was lucky enough to be one of those friends. He was really a good guy once he came out of his shell.

“Hey guys.” Bertholdt said.

“Big Rei!” Connie high fived Reiner’s free hand (his other hand was around Bertholdt’s waist) and grinned. “It’s our last day at this horrible place! Aren’t you pumped!?” Connie shouted. Did this guy ever run out of energy?

“Hell yeah!” Reiner shouted back. He had an enthusiasm that was almost a match for Connie. “Looks like Jean’s excited too. His face isn’t telling everybody to fuck off at seven in the morning!” He laughed.

“Ha. Ha. Ha. I’ll have you know that I’m an absolute delight to be around all day every d-“ My sentence got cut off when I was grabbed from behind. I didn’t even have to turn around to see who it is.

“Good morning my love.” Was whispered in my ear.

“Hey babe.” I smiled as I turned my head around and gave Thomas a kiss.

“You guys need to keep your lovey dovey moments away from me!” Connie shouted.

“It’s not my fault you can’t get a girlfriend, Springer.” I shot back. He just groaned and looked away. Connie has been having trouble finding somebody to date because no one here is able to match his energy. Well, except for Reiner, but that’s obviously not a choice.

“Hey, no need to get hostile here!” Thomas laughed. “We’ll stop. Connie.”

“Good.”

“I can’t say the same about Reiner and Bert, though…” Reiner was kissing Bertholdt’s neck while Bertholdt was looking away from the group with an apologetic look on his face. Reiner was always being put in detention for PDA violations. He had absolutely no self-control.

I cleared my throat. “If you two love birds are done…”

Reiner looked over at me. “What? It’s the last day of school, I can do whatever the hell I want. Me and Bert could do it right here!”

“Reiner!!” Bert groaned.

“Joking, joking!” Reiner laughed. Regardless, he received a punch in the arm from his boyfriend.

I checked my phone and saw that it was almost time for homeroom. It was a rule at our school that we weren’t allowed to have our phones on us during school hours. Absolutely nobody followed that rule. We just hid them in our backpacks and took them out when the teachers weren’t looking. Plus, it’s our last day of high school. What do we care? “We should probably get to homeroom, guys.”

Bertholdt looked at his watch. “Yeah, you’re right.” Bertholdt, Reiner, and Connie shared the same homeroom, but Thomas and I had a different one.

“Alright then,” Connie sighed, “let’s get today over with!” The three of them said their goodbyes and went on their way.

Thomas intertwined our fingers. “Shall we go then?” He smiled at me. He was always smiling. That’s one of the things I liked about him. He was also the type to always want to be in contact with. He would always be hugging me, holding my hand, sitting with me in his arms. He was definitely the cuddly type. Honestly, I loved that about him too. He was definitely one to show his affection.

“Yeah. Let’s go.” I said nonchalantly. I didn’t really want him to know what I was thinking about, but a smile was spreading across my face soon enough. Next thing I know I hear Thomas chuckling beside me.

“What is it?” He asked, still chuckling.

“N-nothing…” I said, a little flustered. How did this guy always see through me? “I was just thinking about you, I guess.”

Thomas acquired a loving look in his eyes and smiled even bigger. “What about me?”

Why did he have to ask that? That was the one and only thing I was hoping he wouldn’t say. “Just…how you are. What I like about you.”

“Oh really? And what would that be?”

“W-well…I mean…I like how happy you are all the time…I guess…”

“Oh?” Thomas gave me an obnoxiously big smile which made him look ridiculous. That rewarded him a swift punch in the arm. “Is that all?” He laughed while rubbing his arm.

“That’s all I’m gonna tell you after that!” I huffed.

“Aw, cmon, babe, don’t be like that!”

“No. This is what you get for making fun of me.”

“I wasn’t trying to make fun of you, darling!” That’s another thing I liked about him. He would always give me pet names. I would never ever tell him that, though. That would be way too embarrassing to me.

In the middle of my thoughts, Thomas grabbed my chin with his free hand and kissed me. “Will you tell me now?” he grinned.

After I regained my senses, I was able to grunt. “Fine. But not because you kissed me!” I said, a little embarrassed. Thomas just laughed. “Well I like the way you’re always so cuddly. Like how you always like to hold hands…and hug…and stuff…”

Thomas just looked at me while we walked. After a little while he smiled. “Good to know.” He said.

We walked the rest of the way in silence. I was a little flustered from saying all those embarrassing things, and Thomas was smiling like an idiot like always. When we reached homeroom we separated and took our seats. Sadly, the seats were assigned, so we couldn’t sit wherever we wanted to. Thomas sat a few rows in front of me and to the right. A perfect position for staring when I got bored. Because it was the last day, teachers really didn’t even do anything. We get the choice to finish our finals early, and literally every senior did. This gave us less time to study, but it’s not like any of us were going to do it anyway. However, we still had to come into class. We just wouldn’t be testing.

Mr. Rivialle basically just told us to sit down and shut up for the class period. Actually, that’s exactly what he told us. I was so glad to be getting away from him. He was always a ruthless teacher. He graded papers the hardest. If they were anything short of perfection, then you wouldn’t get a very good grade. He was also a giant ass. I would’ve been an ass right back to him but I learned my lesson early on…you never disrespected Mr. Rivialle. He may have been short, but he was menacing. So for the whole period we just sat with our heads down. I was just about to fall asleep when the bell rang. I stretched and yawned. When I opened my eyes there was a tall, built, smiling blonde looking down at me.

“Ready to go?” he said with an outstretched hand.

“Yeah, yeah.” I groaned. I took his hand, stood up, and walked out the door with him.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. All the other teachers just let us sit around and talk the time away. When the final bell rang, cheers could be heard from all around the school. I walked out of the classroom to find everybody running around like mad people. Friends were taking pictures, some guy brought an air horn, and people were busting out the front doors. I saw Reiner, Connie, Thomas, and Bert chatting down the hall. I walked over to them.

“What’s up, guys?” I said nonchalantly. I was not expecting for my back to be hit with a freight train. By that, I mean Reiner decided it was a good idea to pat me on the back.

“Jean! We’re free men now!” He said while laughing.

“Watch it Reiner! You must think you’re a normal human being and not a Hulk!” I shot at him, stretching out my back.

“Hey, this guy likes my muscles!” Reiner said as he slapped Bert on the butt, “And that’s all that matters!”

“Reiner! Oh my gosh, you are so embarrassing in public!” Bert said. His face was red and he was sweating, as he did when he got nervous. Connie and I had grossed out looks on our faces, but Thomas and Reiner were laughing.

“Do you like my muscles, Jean?” He said dubiously.

My face turned the same shade as Bertholdt’s. “Oh shut up!” I yelled. He just kept laughing like an idiot.

“You all disgust me…” Connie said with a scowl on his face. I would probably be the same way if I was in that situation. I knew how to make him perk up though.

“Cmon, Connie. Schools over! We can’t help but get excited.” I told him.

“Yeah, Connie!” Reiner added. “Cmon, let’s all get a picture together to mark our last day of high school!” Reiner took out his Samsung Galaxy S4 and motioned for us all to get closer. I let out a groan, but still complied. Thomas just laughed and put his arm around me. Reiner stuck both his arms out in front of him with the phone in his hands. “You guys ready?” he asked. We all just nodded. Right before Reiner took the picture, Thomas kissed me on the cheek. Somehow, I wasn’t expecting that.

Reiner tapped on his phone’s screen and showed the picture. Bertholdt was the only one who actually looked normal. He was just standing, smiling away. Reiner had his tongue sticking out of his mouth, Connie was making the most ridiculous face, and Thomas was kissing my cheek with his eyes closed. Now I looked like an idiot. My mouth was slightly open, my eyes were wide, and my face was red. I punched Thomas in the arm.

“Ow!” He laughed. “What was that for?”

“For making me look like an idiot!” Reiner and Connie were now laughing along with Thomas. “You guys suck…”

Connie put his hand on my shoulder. “Oh Cmon Jean! It’s like you said! We’re finally free! No more high school! We won’t have to deal with Mr. Rivialle ever again!”

That’s the exact moment that all of our hearts stopped. As soon as he said that, Mr. Rivialle was walking by, but now he’s stopped. The scariest part was that he wasn’t looking at us. He was completely still. When he slowly started to turn in our direction, I was afraid for my life. Looking into his eyes was like looking into hell itself. He shot Connie a special glare meant just for him. I saw his knees wobble a little bit, too. Without saying a word, Mr. Rivialle just walked off. Our gazes didn’t move from the spot where he was just standing. I was the first to regain my senses.

I cleared my throat. “I think it would be a good idea to go home now…” All I got were silent nods. Connie and Reiner still had a look of absolute terror on their faces, Thomas was no longer smiling, and Bert was covered in more sweat than I’d ever seen in my life. “You coming with me, Thomas?” I asked.

“Uh, yeah.” He muttered.

I grabbed onto his hand and he seemed to calm down. A smile even started returning to his face. We said good bye to the other three and made our way out the doors. We walked down to my usual parking spot and climbed in my truck. “Well that was interesting…” I said before I started up my truck.

“Yeah I guess you could put it that way.” Thomas laughed nervously.

“Well I know what will be in my nightmares tonight.” Thomas genuinely laughed at that. He probably felt the same way too. I drove us to my house and parked in the driveway. I noticed that both of my parents’ cars were in the driveway as well. Good. They were both home. When we walked through the front door (which Thomas held open for me), I didn’t see anybody in the living room. I combed the first floor with Thomas and we found my mom in the kitchen. She was finishing the last of whatever she was drinking when she noticed us come into the room.

“Oh, hello dear. Hello, Thomas” She greeted.

“Hey mom.”

“Hello Mrs. Kirschtein.”

“Are you just getting home from work?” I asked. She yawned before answering with a yawn. It must be difficult to do her line of work. “Where’s dad?”

“He’s upstairs sleeping. He just got home a little while ago as well. I’m about to go upstairs and sleep too.”

“Oh…alright. I’ll talk to you later, I guess. Have a good rest. Thomas and I will be in the basement.” My mom just nodded and yawned again.

My mood got worse as we walked down the stairs to my basement. We had a rather large television down there. I also kept all of my gaming consoles down there. I grabbed the remote and turned on the TV while Thomas sat on the floor in front of it. I just went to my recordings and put on Friends. Thomas really liked that show. I’d grown to like it. I went to sit next to him when he beckoned me to sit in his lap. I complied and sat down between his legs, which he wrapped around me. He wrapped his arms around me as well. He took the remote from me and muted the TV. “What did you do that for?” I asked him, even though I already knew the answer.

“What’s wrong with you?” he responded. That is the one thing I didn’t want him to ask.

“It’s nothing.” I sighed.

Thomas put his head on my shoulder and returned my sigh with one of his own. “Jean, you know you can’t hide anything from me.” He was right. I could never hide anything from him. He could read me like a book.

“It’s just my parents I guess…” I started. “They’re never really around, ya know? I mean, I know that they’re working hard, but I just feel like they never have any time for me. I feel selfish for wanting them to be home more, but my parents and I haven’t done anything together for quite some time. I feel somewhat responsible, because obviously a child is very expensive. I feel like they’re working themselves too hard because of me. I feel like the reason why they have to kill themselves doing so much work, while I’m either home alone or out doing something I actually want to. I-“

“Jean, you’re not a burden.” Thomas interrupted. His grip on me tightened. “Your parent work the way they do because they love you and this is the line of work they’ve chosen for themselves. Don’t think for one second that any of this is your fault, because it isn’t. You can’t help what line of work your parents go into. Sure, they may work a lot of hours, but that isn’t in your control. I’m sure if you talked to you parents about spending more time with you, then they’ll understand and do whatever they can do. I don’t ever want to hear you blame yourself ever again. Do you hear me? Ever.”

I sat there and considered Thomas’ words. Somehow, they made me feel a lot better. “Thanks, Thomas…” I said.

“Anytime, Darling.” He whispered as he kissed my cheek. He must’ve known that I was feeling better because he unmuted the TV. We sat there for quite some time. I loved the feeling of being in his arms. It made me feel warm and safe. Eventually I decided that I should share with him something else that had been bothering me.

“…Thomas?”

He muted the TV again. “Yes, my love?”

“…Do you really have to go to a different college…?”

It took him a while to answer. “Sadly, I do. My parents are adamant about me going to Sina University…” He said with a sullen tone. Thomas’ family was very well off. They had more money than most families at our school. His parents were very strict about his education. It was a miracle that he somehow convinced them to let him go to our public school for his high school years. He said that he tried to convince them to let him go to Maria University with the rest of us, but they wouldn’t budge. His college was hours and hours away from mine too.

“I’m going to miss seeing you all the time…”

“Hey, now.” Thomas said, kissing my neck. “We’ll still see each other. It may not be as often, but we will definitely see each other whenever possible. Right?”

“Right.” I said. He always had a way to make me feel at least a little better. “You better call me every day!”

“Of course.” He said as he kissed my neck. I could feel him smiling into his kisses. I expected a peck, but the kisses just kept coming. They started to get more passionate.

“Thomas! We’re not doing it down here when my parents are right upstairs!”

Thomas just giggled and gave me a peck on the cheek. “Of course, darling! That never even crossed my mind!” he said dubiously.

I just sighed and leaned into his body, relaxing into his hold. Those we’re the moments I would miss the most while we were separated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sad Jean is sad. But he'll cope...hopefully. So I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this. Comments, feedback, and recommendations are always welcome! You can comment on here or talk to me on my Tumblr.


	2. New Beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jean gets to meet his shy new roommate, and the rest of the gang shows up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update...I meant to get this chapter out earlier, but I had an unexpected 3 day trip. Anyway, a big thank you to my beta reader for this chapter nubofficial. This is where the story actually starts, so we're getting somewhere now. Yay! I hope you enjoy this chapter!

I reach the top of the stairs and feel a vibration in my pocket. I pull out my phone and see that Thomas is calling me. I quickly answer the call. “Hello?”

“Hey, Babe. Did you get to you college yet?”

“I just got here a little while ago. I’m looking for my dorm room right now.”

“Oh? Are you sharing a room, or do you have one to yourself?”

“I’m sharing one. I forget the person’s name, though. I hope I like them…I don’t think I could deal with living with someone who’s annoying.” I sigh.

“Yes, well that’s certainly like you.” Thomas laughs. “I’ll let you meet your roommate and get situated. I’ll call you some other time, alright?”

“Alright. I’ll talk to you then.”

“Love you! Bye.” Thomas says. Immediately after I hear a small beep. I put my phone away with a smile on my face. Maybe things will be okay. I won’t be able to see him as much as I’d like to, but as long as we can still talk every day, I can deal with this situation.

I open the door to the second floor and find yet another row of doors. This time, all of the door numbers end with B. “3B…” I think out loud. After glancing around for a few seconds, I find it. “Second door on the right, then.” I grab the handle and turn it. When I open it, I see the back of a boy rummaging through a suit case. It looks like he didn’t notice me walk in. I purposefully slam the door behind me to get his attention. When the door smacks against the frame, a little yelp comes from the boy.

“O-oh, are you my roommate?” he says to me.

“I guess so.” I respond. He stands up and walks over to me.

“My name’s Marco Bodt.” He smiles. He extends his hand for me to shake it. I grab it a little hesitantly.

“I’m Jean Kirschtein.”

“Hello, Jean.” He says. “I was waiting to choose a bed until you got here. You can pick whichever one you want.”

“Oh. Thank you.” I look around the room. It’s not especially large, but it’s not exactly small.  There’s one bed pressed against the opposite wall and another on the wall to the side. I choose the one against the back wall. On the other wall, there’s a rather large dresser. I suppose that it’s supposed to be for both of us. Rooms didn’t have their own bathrooms. There was a communal one found on each floor. “How long have you been here?” I ask.

“Oh, I didn’t get here that long ago.” I just grunt as a response. “I brought a TV for the room, too. It’s downstairs in my car.”

“Seriously? Awesome, dude. I can help you bring that up if you want.”

“Oh, thanks! Do you wanna get it now?”

“Yeah that’s fine.” I say. He just smiles and walks out the door. I follow him.

“So what are you majoring in, Jean?”

“Oh, I’m majoring in engineering.” I say passively.

“Oh really? That’s interesting. I’ve never been good with anything like that.”

“My dad owns his own mechanics store. I’ve been exposed to it pretty much my whole life.”

“That makes sense, then.” Marco hums. We reach the bottom of the stairs and walk through the front doors. I prop the door open with a door stopper so that we don’t have to scan our ID cards to open the door again. “My car is right over here.” He says, pointing at a Mercedes Benz.

“Dude, is that seriously your car?” I ask astonished.

Marco chuckles a bit. “Yeah it is. My parents got it for me on my seventeenth birthday.”

“You are one lucky bastard…”

He laughs again. “I guess you could say that.” Marco opened the door to reveal a TV. “It’s only 36 inches, and it’s not a flat screen, but I thought this would be fine.”

“Shit, dude. It’s more than fine!” Marco gives an affirmative nod and beckons me over to him. We lift the TV up and head towards the door. We make it through the doors and across the hall with no problem, but when we get to the bottom of the stairs I need a breather. “Hold up. Let me catch my breath.” I pant. He nods and we carefully set the TV down on the floor. I look over at Marco, and his breathing has barely changed at all. That’s when I notice how built he is. “ _Holy shit this dude is ripped…_ ” Is all I can think.

“Alright, let’s keep going.” I sigh. He gives me another nod and we lift the TV up. We get up the stairs and over to our dorm room when I trip on one of Marco’s suitcases. “Shit!” I yell as I hit the ground. I expect to hear a loud crash from a falling television set, but I don’t hear anything.

“A-are you ok?” Marco yells at me from behind. I look up and he’s holding the TV on his own. He set’s the TV on top of the dresser by himself and then kneels down next to me. “I’m so sorry! I should’ve moved my suitcase before we left!”

I push myself up and off the ground. “I’m fine, dude. It’s all good. I should’ve been looking at where I was going. But how fucking strong are you? I mean that TV isn’t the lightest thing!”

“H-huh? Oh, I’m not that strong…I try to work out when I can.”

“I don’t even think you need my fucking help!” I laugh.

He returns my laugh with one of his own. “No, I definitely needed it. Thanks by the way.”

“Oh sure no problem.”

I sit down on my bed, and he sits on his. We sit there for a while just talking to each other. We talk about ourselves and what we were doing before college. I tell him about my friends and my crazy teachers and he listens intently.

“He overheard Connie in the hall? Oh my gosh, how are you alive?”

I laugh at his comment. “I wish I knew, man. He just shot us the deadliest glare I’ve ever seen in my life! Reiner, Bertholdt, and Connie are coming to this college too. You can ask them.”

“I’ll be sure to…this teacher sounds really scary…”

“Yeah. He’s also a huge asshole.”

Marco laughed a bit. “Jean! You shouldn’t talk about your teachers like that!”

“What? You never did?”

Marco puts his finger on his chin in thought. “Well…no. No I haven’t.” He avoids my gaze while he talks.

“Seriously? What the hell did you and your friends talk about, then? Bashing teachers was, like, eighty percent of our conversations.”

“W-well…”

“What? Something wrong?” I don’t know why he’s being so hesitant. I can’t really think of a good reason why he would be.

“I didn’t really have many friends in high school I guess…”

Oh. I guess that explains it. I don’t really know what to say to that…”Well, hey, you already got one friend here. You’re off to a good start!” I try to give him a reassuring smile, but it probably just looks creepy. I think he realizes that I’m trying to be nice, because he giggles and smiles at me.

“Thanks, Jean.” He says. I grunt in response. “I did talk to a girl named Sasha a lot, though.”

“Oh?” I wiggle my eyebrows at him suggestively. It’s hilarious how red his face gets.

“N-not like that!” he yells at me. I just laugh. “She’s actually coming to this school too.”

“Oh really? So I get to meet the lucky lady, then?” Marco throws his pillow at me. It lands on my face with an “oof!”. “You’re gonna regret that!” I shout. I grab a pillow and I’m prepared for a war when my pocket vibrates. I look at the caller and It’s Thomas.

“I gotta take this. You lucked out this time, Bodt!” I take out my phone and slide my finger across the screen. “Hey babe.” I say into the phone.

“Hey! Did you meet your roommate yet?”

“Yeah, I met him. I’m actually with him right now.”

“Oh yeah? Do you like him?”

“Nah. He’s a gigantic nerd.” I give Marco a little wink which makes him giggle. “I’m joking. He’s actually pretty cool.”

“It’s rare for you to get comfortable with somebody so soon. Should I be worried~?”

“Oh shut up!” I roll my eyes as I talk into the phone. “You know you have nothing to worry about.”

He just laughs. “Yeah, I know, Darling. Well, I’ll let you get settled in. I’ll call you later.”

“Alright. Bye. Love you.” I hang up the phone and put it back in my pocket. “Sorry, that was my boyfriend.”

“Oh…” he says, a little surprised.

“What?” I ask with a perplexed look on my face.

“Oh, it’s nothing! I just didn’t know you were…ya know.”

“Is that…a problem?”

He puts his arms out in front of him defensively, waving them frantically. “No no no! Not at all!”

“Alright. Just checking. You wanna find a coffee spot somewhere around here?”

“Yeah, that sounds nice,” He smiles. We both get up and head out the door. Walking past the elevator, we complain about how it’s out of order. I don’t know why he’s complaining, though. With his muscles, bringing up his luggage was probably a hell of a lot easier than me bringing up mine.

We walk through the door to the stairwell and go down the stairs. As soon as I reach the bottom, there’s a surprise waiting for me. I see Reiner and Bertholdt walking through the front doors of the building. I nudge Marco with my elbow and whisper to him. “That’s Reiner and Bertholdt.”

“Really?” he whispers back. I nod. “You weren’t kidding…Reiner looks like he could snap me like a toothpick…” I chuckle at his statement. Marco may be buff, but he’s nothing compared to Reiner. Then again, no one really is.

My thoughts are interrupted by a booming voice. “Well look who it is!” Reiner says with a huge grin on his face. He walks over to me and Marco with Bertholdt trailing close behind.

“Hey Rei! What’s up?” I say.

“Nothin’ much. Bert and I are just gettin’ here. Yourself?”

“I got here a while ago. This is my roommate, Marco.” He gives a polite wave and smiles timidly. He seems nervous.

“H-hello.” He stammers.

Reiner puts his face close to Marco’s and looked him over. He stood back and studied Marco’s full figure, combing him back and forth with his eyes.

“Reiner, please stop…” Bertholdt almost begs. “You can’t do this with everyone you meet.” He gives Marco an apologetic look. Marco just looks confused.

“What exactly is he doing…?” he asks me.

“Just wait for it.” I respond nonchalantly.

Reiner’s studies Marco for a few more moments before he grins. “Ah, so you’re gay too!” he says.

“W-what?” Marco stammers.

“Really? You are? You didn’t tell me that.”

“Reiner! Look, now you embarrassed him! I’m so sorry Marco…”

Marco just looks at each one of us, his face a dark crimson.

“You seem a little confused.” I sigh. He slowly nods. “Reiner, here, is famous for his Gaydar. With a little observation, he can tell whether or not someone’s gay or not. After all these years he’s never been wrong. Unless he’s wrong this time…?”

Marco clears his throat. His face is still red, and there isn’t a sign that that will be changing any time soon. “Well…he’s not _wrong_.”

Reiner grinned. “And the streak continues!” He shouted, pumping his fist in the air.

“Yeah…Marco and I are gonna go before you scare him anymore.” I grab Marco’s arm and lead him towards the door.

“I’ll see you guys later!” Reiner waves. Bertholdt still has an embarrassed and apologetic look on his face. I feel sorry for him sometimes…

I open the door, still tugging Marco with me. When we’re safely outside I let him go. “Sorry about that…” I sigh. “Reiner can come on a little strong.”

Marco laughs nervously. “That’s alright. He seems like a good guy.”

“Oh, he is. There’s no mistake about that. He’s so God damn loud, though…” That makes Marco genuinely laugh. “So do you know any good coffee places around here?”

“Oh yeah…that’s what we were doing. I don’t really know the area, so I guess we should just look around.

I grunt in response and we start walking. Luckily, the college is in an area that is heavily populated with stores of all kinds. We find a lot of places to get a lousy last minute dinner, but not many coffee places. We do find a few Starbucks, but I hate that place. It’s so overpriced, and their drinks aren’t even that good. Marco, apparently, doesn’t share my feelings, but he keeps looking for another place regardless.

We turn the corner and finally find a place that seems like a coffee shop. The name on the window reads “Petra’s: Humanities Greatest Cup of Coffee”. Not the slogan I would’ve chosen, but hey. We walk through the front doors and are met with the wonderful fragrance of cappuccino. This place will be perfect.

We walk up to the counter to order something. The woman there has a smile on her face and seems to have a positive nature. “Welcome to Petra’s! I’m Petra herself! Can I get you two anything?”

“I’ll just take a cup of coffee. No sugar, no milk.” I respond.

Marco puts his finger on his chin and looks up at the menu. I’ve seen him do that before…maybe he always does that when he’s thinking. It’s kind of cute. “I’ll just have some green tea I guess.” He says.

Petra punches in some buttons at her register and then looks at us. “That’ll be $19.28.” She says. That’s cheap compared to where I used to go.

I begin to pull out my wallet, but Marco stops me. “It’s fine, Jean. I got it.”

“Really, dude? Thanks.” Marco just smiles at me and pulls out a twenty dollar bill from his pocket. He gives the money to Petra and she puts it away and hands him back his change.

Petra turns around and walks into the back of the shop. “Oluo! I need green tea and a black coffee!”

“Why don’t you do it yourself then!”

Immediately following that comment, we hear what sounds like someone being hit. We hear a man yell “Ow ow! Alright!”. Marco and I look at each other with perplexed expressions. Eventually we just shrug our shoulders and find somewhere to sit. We choose a small table with two chairs.

I take this time to look around the place. There aren’t many customers, and it’s not a very big place. It definitely has that homey feel to it.

My thoughts are interrupted by Marco. “This place is so quaint.” He smiles. “I really like it.”

“Yeah. It feels more like your visiting someone’s house instead of a shop.”

“We should come back here often.”

“Let’s see how good the coffee is first.”

Marco chuckles. “Yeah that’s a good idea. Here comes our drinks now.”

I look over and see a rather tall man with his hair tied in the back approaching us. I look at his nametag and see “Eld Jinn”. He comes to our table, drops off our drinks, and leaves without saying a word.

“Well…that was interesting.” Marco says. I just nod and look at my drink. I notice that the cups are quite big. That’s good. Less money and more of the product. I could get used to this place. Let’s just hope that the coffee is actually good.

I bring my hands down to the cup and bring it towards my face. The cup is warm against my hands. I breathe in the scent of the coffee before putting the cup to my lips. As I drink the coffee, my eyes go wide. I set down the cup and see Marco looking at me.

“What is it?” he asks.

“This is the best coffee I have ever had in my entire life…”

Marco chuckles. “I’m glad you like it.” He takes his tea in his hands and drinks it. “Their tea isn’t half bad either.” He says, putting the cup down. I nod and start drinking my coffee again. It’s so good that it only takes me a couple minutes to finish the whole cup. “Was it really that good?” Marco asks.

“Fuck yeah. I have never had a better cup in my life. We are coming here all the time.”

Marco laughs. “Alright, alright.”

Marco finishes his tea and sets the cup down. “You ready to go, Jean?”

“Yeah, man. Let’s head back to our dorm.”

“Sounds good.”

We thank Petra and head out the door. It doesn’t take us long to get back to our dorm since we’re not too far away. We enter the building once I scan my I.D. card, and we see Reiner and Bertholdt sitting with someone else in the lounge area. All three of them look at us when they hear the sound of the door.

I recognize the third person in the lounge as Connie. He grins when he sees me. “Jeanny Boy! There ya are!”

“Hey Connie.” I laugh. “When did you get here?”

“Ah, not too long ago. Who’s this?”

“Oh. Connie, this is Marco. Marco, this is Connie.”

“Hiya!” Connie shouts. Marco waves shyly. Reiner leans over and whispers something in Connie’s ear. Connie looks back at Marco. “Oh really? Geez, I don’t think I have _any_ straight friends.” He sighs.

Marco’s face turns red when he realizes what Reiner said to him. “Seriously, Reiner?” I say annoyed.

“Whaaat?” He whines. I just give him a look.

“It’s alright.” Marco laughs nervously. I just sigh. Marco and I walk over to the lounge and sit down with the three of them.

We sit there talking for quite some time. We don’t talk about anything in particular. Just whatever comes to mind. I learn that Reiner and Bertholdt are roommates on the first floor, and Connie is on the third floor. He can’t remember his roommate’s name. Before we know it, the sun is down and we’re still talking. I realize how late it is when I notice Marco repeatedly yawning.

“I think Marco and I are gonna go to bed now.”

“Oh~?” Reiner wiggles his eyebrows at us suggestively.

“Oh, go to hell Reiner!” I shout. I nudge Marco and we get up. We say goodbye to everyone and then head upstairs. When we’re safely through the doors, I flop down on my bed. “Damn those guys take a lot of energy to handle…”

“Well they’re all certainly interesting character.” Marco giggles. I just groan into my pillow. Now that I think about it, Marco wasn’t that involved in the conversation. He would only talk when he was spoken to. Other than that, he would just nervously laugh and nod whenever the moment called for it.

I bring my head up and face Marco. He’s going through his suitcases and starting to put more things away. “Oh my God, you are the shyest person I’ve ever met…”

“W-what?” Marco says flustered. “What do you mean?”

“You hardly said a word earlier, and you always get so red!”

“W-well I mean…I don’t really know them that well…and you do. I just felt out of place.”

“There’s no reason to feel like that, dude. If you can’t already tell, they consider people they just met to be good friends. It’s a weird habit of theirs…” Marco rubs the back of his neck and laughs nervously. He’s just too fucking adorably. It’s like sharing a room with a puppy. “Is the TV all set up?” I ask.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. It’s all good.”

“Perfect.” I get up and look through one of my suitcases. I pull out my Xbox 360 and start setting it up. “I have Netflix on this thing, so if you ever want to use that feel free.”

“Oh. Thanks.” I nod and finish setting up the Xbox. I return back to my bed and lay down. “Just so you know, I will be kicking your ass at a multitude of games while we’re here.”

“I’ve never even played an Xbox before…” Marco says at almost a whisper.

I gasp overdramatically. “You’ve never played video games before?”

“No, no. I have! I had a Wii at my house. My sister and I would play that together. I just never felt a desire to get anything else.”

I get up and walk back to my bag. I pull out a couple of Xbox controllers and toss one at Marco. “I don’t care how tired you are, we’re playing right now.”

“What? Why?”

“Because this means you have never played a decent call of duty game in your life. We are playing right now.” I pat the spot next to my bed for him to sit on. My bed is directly across from the TV, so it’s easier to see. He whines a little bit before finally giving in a sitting next to me.

“Am I holding this thing right?” He asks. I laugh and pat him on the back.

“Yeah, man. You’re fine!” I say, still laughing. He still has a nervous look on his face. This guy is too much.

Even though Marco was reluctant, he started to have fun eventually. Now that he had the hang of the controls, he had a little more than zero kills each game. I periodically look at his face during games. When he’s concentrating on the game, he’ll stick the tip of his tongue out and purse his lips. I’ve noticed a lot of habits he has, and I haven’t even known the guy for twenty four hours yet. What a dork.

“See? Wasn’t that fun?” I say once we’re finally finished playing.

“Maybe for you! I just watched myself die repeatedly…”

I laugh at that. “Don’t worry, dude. You’ll get better.”

“I’m gonna keep getting better until I can beat you at that game.”

“That’s the spirit, Freckles!”

“Did you just call me ‘Freckles’?”

I take his controller away from him with a chuckle. “Maybe.” is the only response I give him. I get up and walk over to the TV. I drop both of or controllers on top of the dresser and return to my bed. I check my phone and see that I have one missed call.

“Shit…Thomas called me.” I mutter. I look at the time in the corner of my phone and see that it’s already two in the morning. “Holy shit is it already this late?”

“Late…?” Marco repeats. He pulls out his phone and checks the time as well. “Oh! We should get to bed!”

“Yeah. I’ll have to call Thomas back in the morning.”

Marco nods and gets up to turn off the light. He turns it off and walks back to his bed in the dark.

“Owie!”

“W-what?”

“I stubbed my toe on one of my suitcases!”

I hear him stumble onto his bed. “…did you seriously say ‘Owie’?”

“Oh be quiet!” He yells at me.

I snicker under my blanket. “Goodnight, dork.” I laugh.

I hear him huff and turn around in his bed. “Goodnight, Jean.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah, these dorks finally meet each other, and shy Marco is shy. Poor Reiner has to embarrass him so much. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Expect the next one within a week! Tell me if you see any spelling errors or if there's anything that you might want to see in the future! You can comment here or tell me on my Tumblr.


	3. Surprises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marco has a habit he neglected to mention, and he introduces Jean to his friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, early chapter! Kind of...Anyway, we get to meet Marco's friends this chapter, and Connie is love struck! Annie also makes an appearance! Thank thank you thank you to my 3 beta-readers for this chapter nubofficial, confirmed-by-coffee, and goodfinders! Without further ado, enjoy the chapter!

“ **STOOOOOOOOP!!** ”

I instantly jump out of bed. I look around the room to see where the source of the sound is. I see Marco in his bed flailing his arms. It’s almost like he’s trying to protect himself from something. I run over to his bed and try to calm him down.

“Marco! MARCO!! It’s alright! Can you hear me? **MARCO**!”

“N-NO! STOP! GET AWAY FROM ME! PLEASE!” Marco’s arms are still thrashing around. He hits me on the cheek. I hop onto the bed and pin his arms down.

“Marco! Marco, it’s okay! You’re alright! Marco, wake up. **WAKE UP!!** ” I scream in his face. His eyes pop open. His face is covered in sweat and he looks terrified.

“J-Jean?”

“Marco! Are you ok? You were having one hell of a nightmare!”

He looks away from me and bites his lip. “I-I’m sorry…”

“It’s alright, dude.” I get off of him stand up. I notice how hard he’s breathing. It’s like he just ran a marathon. What kind of nightmare could he have been having that would put him in this state?

Marco gets up and sits on the side of his bed. He puts his hand on his head in exhaustion. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom…” he sighs. I nod and watch him leave the room. What the hell was that, though? It doesn’t look like he wants to talk about it…maybe I shouldn’t ask him about it.

I decide not to bring the subject up unless he does. I look at the clock. Six o’clock? Shit, I guess I’m not getting back to bed. I’ll sleep all day! Whatever.

I make my bed and look at Marco’s. It’s a mess. It looks like a tornado hit it. While he was flailing around, all of his sheets were shoved off of his bed. I walk over, pick up all of them, and make his bed for him. Right as I finish, I hear the door open from behind me. Marco walks in looking much better than he did before.

“Hey.” I say nonchalantly.

“H-Hey!” He smiles awkwardly. He seems to be nervous.

“…We don’t have to talk about anything if you don’t want to.” I sigh. His expression turns from nervousness to relief. “It’s pretty early, but do you want to hit that coffee place?”

“Oh, yeah! That sounds great!” After a few minutes, we’re out the door and on our way. It doesn’t take us that long to get there because we know exactly where to go this time.

When we walk through the door, we see Petra at the counter. She smiles and waves at us. We wave back and look around the shop. It’s completely empty. Well, it _is_ almost 6:30 in the morning. I guess there aren’t too many early birds around here.

We approach Petra and order the same thing we ordered the last time we were here. I got my black coffee, and Marco his green tea. We’re about to go find a place to sit when Petra stops us.

“Weren’t you boys here the other day?” She asks.

“Yeah, we were.” Marco says. “We’re about to start school soon, so you can probably add us to the list regular customers.

“That’s wonderful!” Petra shouts overjoyed. “We’re actually just starting, so we don’t have too many customers. It’s good to know that some people really like our products.”

As far as I’m concerned,” I chime in, “you guys have the best coffee ever made.”

Petra beams. “Thank you so much! Please, take a seat. We’ll have your drinks out right away!”

We both nod and sit down at the same spot we did yesterday. Marco seems to be looking at the decorations around the shop. He doesn’t show any signs that this morning’s events are still affecting him, but what _was_ that? Maybe he’s just prone to bad dreams? I’m curious, but I don’t want to delve into things that don’t concern me. Since it’s Marco, it’s probably not a good idea to push him on the subject. He’s already extremely fragile.

“You ok, Jean?”

I’m startled by Marco’s voice. “Huh? Oh, yeah. I’m fine. Why?”

“Well,” Marco scratches his cheek awkwardly, “you were kind of staring at me.”

“I-I was?” He nods. “Sorry about that. I was just lost in thought.”

“What we’re you thinking about?”

“O-oh nothing.”

“I see…” Marco looks out the window. I think he might know what I was thinking about, but he still doesn’t want to talk about it. That’s fine.

“Are you doing anything today?” I ask.

“Oh, nothing in particular. I was thinking of visiting the girls’ dorm to visit a friend. You’re welcome to come with me.”

“Is it that Sasha girl you talked about?”

“Yeah. I’m surprised you remember.”

“Cmon, Freckles, give me more credit! I’m not a complete idiot!”

Marco chuckles. “Are you sure about that?”

“Oh, fuck you!” I say. I try and fail to conceal a laugh.

While we’re both laughing like idiots, a waiter comes over and delivers our drinks. This isn’t the same guy that we saw yesterday. His skin is olive-tones and his brown hair is done in a way that it comes to a point. I squint my eyes and try to read his name tag. It reads “Gunther Schultz”. I think he notices my squinting, because he gives me a weird look before he walks away.

“I guess the waiters here don’t really talk to the customers very much.” Marco thinks out loud.

“I guess so…” I agree. I look at my cup of coffee in front of me and cup it in my hands. It’s warm. Probably too warm to drink, but it’s so good. I lift it up to my mouth and take a sip.

“Ow!” I shout. As soon as the coffee touches my tongue, it burns. I somehow manage not to drop my cup, and I set it down on the table. Marco is trying to contain his laughter from across the table. I glare at him, but that only makes him laugh at loud.

“I’m sorry,” Marco somehow gasps out between his laughs, “but that was really funny!”

I just roll my eyes and wait for my coffee to cool down. After a few minutes I pick up the cup again and bring it to my lips. Before I drink it, I blow on it to cool it down. When I finally take a sip, it’s the perfect temperature. I savor the taste as it goes down my throat.

“Ahh…still the best cup of coffee ever…” I sigh contently. Marco finishes his tea, and I finish my coffee. Soon after, we start heading out the door. We wave good bye to Petra (who’s still beaming), and start walking.

I pull my phone out of my pocket and look at the time. “Wow. It’s almost eight.”

“Really? We were there that long?”

“Looks like it. Do you wanna head down to the girls’ dorm now or later?”

Marco put a finger on his chin in thought. “I doubt she’s awake right now. She likes to sleep in. Let’s just head back to our dorm for now.”

“Alright.” We head back to our dorm. We walk in and see Connie sitting by himself. He’s on his phone scrolling through something.

“What’s up, Con-man?” I say. Marco instantly looks somewhere other than Connie. I guess he’s still too shy around him.

He jumps at the sound of my voice. “Oh, it’s you Jean.” He sighs. “Nothing much. I’m just sitting here bored.”

“You’re not with Reiner and Bert?” I ask.

“Nah. They’re both still sleeping. I assume they were mating like rabbits last night…I don’t think they’ll be waking up soon, either.”

“Well, we’re going over to the girls’ dorm in a little bit. You want to come?”

“Sure! That sounds great!”

“Is that alright?” I whisper to Marco.

“Of course it is!” I nod and we sit by Connie.

“So where are you two coming from? I thought you guys would still be asleep.”

I stay quiet, encouraging Marco to talk to him. “O-Oh, we just went to a coffee shop not too far from here. We woke up quite early.”

“Really? Why? Jean, here, usually sleeps as long as possible.”

Marco opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off. “A stupid bird hit our window and woke us both up pretty early. We couldn’t get back to sleep, so we just went out for coffee.” I glance over at Marco and he gives me a grateful expression.

“Oh. Sucks for you guys.”

“We can’t all be early risers like you.”

“Try not to envy me _too_ much.” Connie said with a grin.

“Trust me, I don’t.” We all laugh and continue talking. Marco even participates in the conversation. Well, more than he did yesterday at least. Before we know it, it’s already 10:30.

“Oh! We should probably get going, now.” Marco said. Connie and I nod in agreement. We all get up and leave the building. The girls’ dorm isn’t too far away. It’s about a ten minute walk from our dorm. On our way there, Marco calls Sasha and tells her that he’s on his way to meet her.

We arrive and see a girl sitting on the stairs in front of the building. She sees us and she screams “MARCO!!”. She runs towards us and jumps onto Marco, giving him a big hug. Her feet weren’t even touching the ground, but with Marco’s physique, he has no problem supporting her.

“Hi Sasha.” Marco laughs. “It’s good to see you.”

“You too!” She shouts. “How have you been?”

“I’ve been good. Yourself?”

“Great, great! Moving in was easy.” Sasha looks at Connie and me. “Oh, are these your friends?”

“Hmm? Oh yeah. Sasha, this is Jean and Connie. Guys, this is Sasha.”

“Hiya!” She says enthusiastically.

“Hello.” I say with a smile. Connie doesn’t say anything. In fact, he seems to be staring at her with a strange expression on his face.

“I think your friend is broken!” Sasha giggles. “Can I talk to you over here for a moment?”

“Um, alright?” Sasha pulls Marco away from us and out of ear shot. She pulls Marco down to her level and whispers something in his ear. What bothers me the most is that she’s staring right at me as she does. When her mouth stops moving, Marco becomes extremely flustered. I don’t get the chance to enjoy this spectacle, because Connie decides to tug on my arm sharply.

“What the hell, man?”

“I’m going to marry her.”

“You’re gonna…what?”

“That girl. Sasha. I’m gonna marry her if it’s the last thing I do.”

I sit there baffled for a moment. Soon after, I laugh. “Dude, you can’t be that hard up!”

“I’m not hard up! That woman is flawless! Look at her!”

“Whatever you say, man.” I chuckle. These two know absolutely nothing about each other. They just met, and Connie is ready to have a wedding tomorrow. He’s never allowed to mock me for anything ever again.

In the middle of my thoughts, Marco and Sasha make their way back to us.

“Sorry about that!” Sasha says, sticking her tongue out slightly. “I just had to talk to Marco about something.”

“That’s fine.” I say. “You guys wanna go somewhere?”

“Like where?” Marco asks.

“Well, I don’t know. Wanna grab an early lunch? Or I guess it would be brunch? I haven’t eaten anything today.”

“Food? Oh, I am totally up for some food!” Sasha shouts. The rest of the group nods their approval, and we start walking. Connie and I walk side by side, while Marco and Sasha do the same in front of us. Connie punch my arm and gives me a look.

“Ok, I admit that you guys do have some obvious similarities,” I whisper, trying to conceal a laugh, “but I think we should take a step back from marriage.”

“Ok, fine. But we are definitely going out. She will be my girlfriend, and I will be her boyfriend. It’s happening. I don’t care what anyone else says, it’s happening.”

“What if her boyfriend says something different?” I ask dubiously. I almost instantly regret. Connie’s face contorts in a way that tells me his heart may have shattered into pieces. “D-Dude, I was just joking with you…come back to me, man.”

“Don’t joke around about this, Jean!” Connie punches me in the arm again. He may be little, but he certainly isn’t scrawny. It’s starting to hurt.

While Connie and I are having our little altercation, Marco turns around to face us. “Uh…is pizza ok with you guys?”

“Y-Yeah, that’s fine…” Connie says blankly.

While Connie and I were talking, Sasha and Marco stumbled upon a little, quaint pizza parlor. We walk in and we’re greeted by a woman wearing glasses behind the counter.

“Welcome, welcome, welcome to Erwin’s Pizza Parlor!” she says a little too enthusiastically. We all walk up to the counter and look over the menu. I notice that the only things on the menu are different toppings and drinks. It doesn’t look like they sell anything but pizza and beverages here.

“What kind of pizza do you guys want?” Marco asks.

“I want pepperoni!” Connie and Sasha shout in unison. They look at each other and swap smug looks before high fiving.

“I kinda feel like cheese…” I say.

“Same here.” Marco responds. “In that case, can we get a medium cheese pizza and a…” He stops there and looks at Sasha. “A Large pepperoni pizza.” She smiles and gives him a thumbs up.

“Coming right up!” Hanji says. She disappears behind a door. “Erwin, we have an order!” we hear from the other side.

With that, our group turns around and finds a place to sit. There are many tables scattered around the place. There are booths along the walls as well. We choose a particularly large booth near the window of the parlor. Marco and Sasha sit down next to each other on one side of the table. Right when I’m about to sit down, I’m practically shoved out of the way as Connie scrambles to get in first.

“What the h-“ I stop myself as I see why he bulldozed through me. He wanted the seat directly across from Sasha. That little fucker…he didn’t have to shove me.

I grumble to myself as I take my seat across from Marco, who seems to be biting back a laugh. I shoot him a glare that makes it harder for him to contain his laughter.

We sit there and talk while waiting for our pizza to finish. Actually, Marco and I talk to each other, while Connie and Sasha talk. They seem to be hitting it off. After about ten minutes, a waiter comes over and delivers our pizza. The waiter is extremely tall, taller than Bert. That’s a little scary. I didn’t even know that was possible. He didn’t say anything to us when he dropped off our pizza (is that what all the waiters around here are like?). Before he leaves, I’m able to catch a glimpse at his name tag. It reads “Mike”.

“What are you guys waiting for? Let’s dig in!” Sasha shouts. None of us waste a second. I grab two pieces from the cheese pizza, and Marco does the same. We don’t talk much while we eat. We’re all too hungry. The pizza is really crappy, but it’s a good kind of crappy. It’s hard to describe.

I finish my first piece and glance over at Connie. “What the fuck? You guys wolfed down more than half your pizza already?”

“Hey, it’s not our fault you guys are lightweights!” Connie laughs. Sasha laughs along with him as they keep on eating.

Marco and I exchange glances, but keep eating. Sasha and Connie finish their pizza in record time. When Marco and I are finally full, we still have two pieces of pizza left.

“You guys gonna finish that?” Sasha asks hopefully. We shake our heads. “Alright!” She grabs a piece, and Connie grabs the other. After the split second it takes them to inhale their pieces, we let out a content sigh.

“Well, that wasn’t bad.” Marco says.

“It wasn’t great, either.” I add.

“Food is food!” Sasha and Connie say in unison. They look at each other and grin.

I just roll my eyes. “You guys ready to go?”

“Yeah!” Sasha shouts. She has too much energy after eating all of that food. “Let’s go back to the girls’ dorm. I have surprise!”

“A surprise?” Marco asks.

“You’ll see! C’mon, let’s go!” With that, we get up and head to the girls’ dorm again. We walk out to the front, and Sasha makes a phone call. “Yeah, he’s here. Come downstairs!” she says, before hanging up.

“Sasha, what’s going on?” Marco asks.

“You’ll see!”

After a few moments pass, the door is opened and a short girl with black hair steps out. I glance over at Marco, and his eyes are wide open in shock.

“M-Mina! Mina, is that you?”

“Marco!” the girl screams. She runs over gives him a hug.

“Mina, what are you doing here? I thought you were going to Sina University?”

“I convinced my parents to let me go to Maria U!” She said excitedly.

“That’s great! Oh, Mina, this is Jean and Connie.”

“Hey!” She says with a wave. We both wave back and smile at her. She seems nice.

“So, how do you two know each other?” I ask.

“We’ve been neighbors our entire lives!” Marco says with a smile.

“Yup! Best friends!” Mina smiles back. “Well come on, let’s go inside! We can sit down in there.”

We all nod and follow her to the door. She scans her I.D. card and the door clicks open. When we first came to the college, they explained to us that only a female I.D. card can open the girls’ dorm, and only a male I.D. card and open the boys’ dorm. It’s obvious why they do that, but pointless, really. It’s very easy to get around.

We walk inside the building and I look around. It looks like the mirror image of the boys’ dorm. Well that’s boring. We walk towards the lounge area and we see none other than Reiner and Bert! They seem to be talking to a blonde girl. A scary looking blonde girl…

Bertholdt notices us and waves hello. I wave back. We walk over to the lounge until Reiner notices that we’re there.

“Jean! Con-man! What’s up?”

“Not much. We just got back from this pizza parlor.”

“And you didn’t invite us? Gee, love you guys too!’ Reiner said with a pout.

“We thought you were asleep, dude!”

“Yeah, yeah whatever!”

“Those three were here when I came down to meet Marco.” Sasha says.

“Speaking of three, who’s this?” I ask.

“Oh! Sorry.” Bert says flustered. “This is our friend Annie. We met her earlier this morning.” Annie gives our group a nod. She doesn’t even say anything. What’s with her superiority complex? I don’t even know the woman, but I’m starting not to like her.

“I’ve got to go now.” Annie says, standing up and walking out the door.

“Yeah, she doesn’t warm up to people easily…” Bert laughs nervously.

“So then how in the world did she warm up to the two of YOU?” Connie says.

“Who wouldn’t warm up to us? There isn’t a person on this planet who wouldn’t want to be with us all the time!” Reiner grins.

“I can think of one person…”

“Shut up, Jean!”

* * *

We all sit down and start talking to each other. Of course, Connie and Sasha are together. Maybe they _will_ get married. It would certainly make sense.

In the middle of my thoughts, Marco nudges me. “I think we should set Connie and Sasha up.” He whispers.

“I don’t think we need to. Do you see them over there? They’re practically already together.”

Marco chuckles. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

I look at my phone and see that it’s almost two o’clock. Wait…my phone…shit! I jump out of my chair and head for the door. Everyone sitting gives me a weird expression. “I-I have to make a phone call!” I say as I rush out the door. I dial Thomas’s number and press call. After two rings, he picks up.

“Jean! Where have you been? You missed my call last night, and you didn’t call me this morning! I was about to drive over there!”

“I know, I know! I’m so sorry! It’s just been an eventful day…I haven’t had much time for anything!” I guess that’s kind of true…

“…alright. Well, as long as everything is okay with you. So how’s your school ife? I know it’s only your second day over there, but what’s been happening?”

I tell Thomas about everything that’s happened while I’ve been there. Of course, I don’t tell him about Marco this morning. Even though they probably won’t see each other, I still want to respect his privacy. I do tell him about all the interesting people I’ve met, though.

“She sounds perfect for Connie!” Thomas laughs.

“That’s what I said! And they’re totally into each other, too. They’ve been attached at the hip all day.”

“Well, at least Connie finally met someone! I’m happy for him.”

“Yeah. Good for him. But, anyway, how’ve you been? Have you met anyone there?”

“I have made a few friends here. I really like my roommate. His name is Eren. I’ve also met two of his friends, Armin and Mikasa. They’re a pretty cool bunch. I like hanging out with them.”

“That’s good!”

“Yeah, it is! Oh, and I looked at our school’s football schedule for this year. Our schools will be facing each other!”

“Oh really? That means we can see each other during one of the games!”

“Yeah! I mean, I’m more of a soccer person, but if you’re there, I might be able to find something entertaining to do!” Thomas said dubiously.

“Thomas! You’re so embarrassing sometimes…”

Thomas laughed. “It’s not like there’s anyone around!”

“Still…”

“Alright, Darling.” He chuckled. “I have to go now.”

“Alright. Call me tonight.”

“Alright, Babe. Bye. Love you!”

“Love you too.” I say before hanging up. Well, at least he wasn’t mad that I missed his call.

* * *

The rest of the day was uneventful. All we really did was talk. I got to know Mina better, though. She’s really nice. Our whole group took a walk through the area, but we didn’t stop anywhere. We just walked and talked.

The sun is down now, and I’m walking back to the boys’ dorm with the guys.

“Don’t tease him, Reiner!” Bertholdt says. “He’s finally found someone. Let him have his moment.”

“Thank you, Bert!” Connie cheers. “I think…”

Marco and I just laugh. We make it back to our dorms’ in one piece. Thomas calls me when Marco and I walk through the door to our room. We don’t talk much. We just make idle chatter.

Marco waits patiently through our conversation. I can tell he wants to go to bed by all the yawning he does. He yawns like a puppy, and I find that adorable. When we finally say goodnight to each other, Marco looks like he’s knocked out on his bed.

I smile and turn out the lights. When I return to my own bed, I start thinking. What if he has another night terror? Is that going to be every night? Only time will tell, I guess…

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Connie. All his friends tease him! But, he's in love, so who cares. Not too much goes on in this chapter. Just dorks being dorks. I find Mina to be an unappreciated character, so I wanted to work her into the story. I hope you liked it! Feedback is always welcome. You can comment here or message me on Tumblr.


	4. Accidents Happen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jean spends time with new faces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am SO sorry this took so long to get out. I wish I had a good enough excuse, but I'm just trash. This chapter is introducing more characters into the story. Thank you thank you thank you to my beta reader for this chapter goodfinders! Not much else to say other than Enjoy!

I wake up to the annoyance of sun in my face. I pull my blanket over my face and let out a groan. Why does the sun have to be bright? Can’t it be warm and dark? I like that better.

I sit up in my bed and try to blink the sleep out of my eyes. Looking around the room, I see that Marco isn’t in his bed. My phone reads 8:30. He must’ve gone out for whatever reason.

I shrug and get up. After stretching, I head over to the showers. I lean against the wall and let the steaming water run over me. After about 10 minutes (and almost falling asleep again), I get out and head back to my room in a towel. I open the door and see Marco standing in the middle of the room. He’s holding something in his hand. I close the door behind me, and he jumps at the sound.

“Hey,” I say to him, “I didn’t see you when I woke up.”

“W-well I went to, u-uh… He looks away from me and holds out what’s in his hand. It looks like he went out to buy us both coffee. That was nice of him.

I take one of the cups out of the tray he’s holding. “Thanks man.”

“No problem…” He says blushing. Why is he acting so weird? Oh wait…

I suddenly realize how little I’m wearing. “Oh, shit. Sorry! Mind giving me a minute?” He nods and walks out of the room. I start getting dressed. Once I have my pants on, I call him back into the room. “Sorry about that.”

“No, i-it’s fine!” he stutters as I put a shirt on.

"Thanks again for the coffee."

He scratches the back of his neck nervously. "Oh, it's no problem. I just thought I would let you sleep in today."

"Thanks." I say raising my cup a little. He must feel bad about what happened. I don't want him to. He shouldn't. There's nothing to feel bad about. It looks like it didn't happen last night, though. Maybe it doesn't happen often.

* * *

 

I down the rest of my coffee as he drinks his tea. "You have any plans today?" I ask.

"Not really. Oh, I think Mina said she wanted me to meet a couple people here at the school."

"She's only been here for a day!"

Marco chuckled. "She makes friends easily. People tend to really like her."

"That makes sense considering her personality." I say. I get up and throw away my coffee cup. "Wanna see if anyone else is awake?"

"Oh, sure."

Marco gets up and throws his cup away. He follows me out the door and we head up to the next floor.

"What was Connie's room number again...?"

"Didn't he say he was in 4c?" Marco says.

"Oh, yeah. That's right." I look from left to right down the hall trying to find 4c. When I see it, we walk up to it and knock.

"Pause it! DUDE, PAUSE IT!" We hear. Marco and I exchange questioning glances. The door flies open and reveals a small man with a buzz cut. "What!?" He shouts.

"We were just wondering if you wanted to hang o-"

"Get in, quick! C’mon!" Connie yells. He grabs our arms, pulls us inside, and slams the door.

“What the fuck, Connie?” I yell. He completely ignores me and runs past me to the center of the room. I notice that there’s someone else in the room. He’s sitting on the floor holding a Gamecube controller. He has shaven brown hair and a fairly large build. He looks a little taller than Marco.

“I knew you would cheat, you little fucker!” Connie yells. He grabs the controller on the floor and sits down next to the now laughing mystery man. “Jean, Marco, this little shit is Franz. He’s my roommate.”

“Don’t be a sore loser, Connie!” he laughs. I give Marco a look that hopefully conveys how confused I am. He shrugs his shoulders with a similar look on his face.

I take the time to look around the room and notice that it’s made about as much progress as ours has. There are no posters on the wall, there are unemptied suitcases by the beds, and there’s a only a TV on top of the dresser against the wall. The only difference is that their TV is smaller, and instead of an Xbox, they have a Gamecube. When I see what they’re playing, I get angry.

I kick Connie and he topples over, dropping his controller.

“What the hell, Jean!?”

“YOU RUSHED US IN HERE BECAUSE OF MARIO KART!?” I yell at him.

“I was winning until you guys showed up! I should be the one that’s angry!”

“MARIO KART!?” I repeat. He just shakes his head and returns to his spot. Shortly after, Franz passes the finish line.

“Winner!” He shouts with a grin on his face.

“CHEATER!” Connie fumes.

“I didn’t force you to answer the door!”

Connie rolls his eyes and turns to us. “So why’re you guys here again?”

“We were just wondering if you wanted to do something. We were getting bored.” I tell him.

“Wanna play with us?” Franz offers.

I shrug. “Sure, why not.” Franz smiles and grabs two more controllers. I sit on the floor next to Connie, and Marco sits next to me. “I hope you guys are ready to get your asses kicked.” I smirk.

“Jean, have you ever beaten me in a video game?” Connie asks.

“Doesn’t matter! I’m about to right now!”

“Ohh, showing off for Marco are we?” Connie nudges my arm with his elbow. I jab my elbow into his side, and he makes a yelping noise.

After a few minutes, there’s the sound of a whistle which marks the end of the race.

“I’ll take first place!” Franz grins.

“You just got lucky! You only beat me by a couple seconds!” Connie defends. “That’s a lot more than Jean and especially Marco.”

“I-I don’t really play video games…” Marco says timidly.

“And I only lost because Connie hit me with every shell he had!”

“It’s not my fault I’m so good at this game.” Connie laughed. “You just suck!”

I smack Connie on the back of his head and challenge him to a rematch. Franz and Marco stop playing and opt to just watch. While Connie and I play, they seem to have a good conversation.

Somehow, Connie beats me repeatedly. Eventually, I just throw my controller and give up. It’s a stupid game anyway. I hear Marco chuckling behind me and whip my head around. “What’s so funny?” I ask bitterly.

“Oh nothing.” He says with mischief in his voice. “Do you guys want to head over to the girls’ dorm? I have to meet up with Mina.”

“What time is it?” Connie asks.

“It’s almost eleven now.”

“Really? Wow, that’s later than I thought.”

We all decide to walk over to the girls’ dorm together. Marco texts Mina to say that we’re on our way, and we start heading out Connie’s dorm room.

We use the stairwell to get downstairs (because the elevator is still broken). We reach the lobby and see Reiner and Bertholdt sitting with someone else. I recognize her as the girl they were sitting with the other day. What was her name? Annie or something?

My thoughts are interrupted by Connie’s yelling. “Hey, Big Rei!”

“Con-man! What’s up?” Reiner yells with a wave. Bertholdt gives us a nod, but Annie doesn’t even look in our direction.

“We’re heading over to the girls’ dorm. You guys wanna come?”

Reiner looks at Bertholdt and then at Annie. “Nah, we’re good here. We’ll catch ya later, though.”

“Suit yourself, then.” Connie says with a shrug. After that, we head out the door and towards the girls’ dorm. When we get there, Mina and Sasha are waiting outside for us. When they see us, Mina smiles, and Sasha waves frantically.

“Hey you guys!” Sasha shouts. I notice Connie’s eyes brighten, and a huge grin appears on his face. Marco attempts to respond to her, but Connie beats him to it.

“Hey Sasha!” He shouts with enthusiasm.

“Oh, hey! Connor, right?”

I try to hold back a laugh as I look to see Connie’s reaction. I regret laughing when I actually see him. You can tell by looking in his eyes that his heart had broken into a million pieces. I’m afraid that if he talks he might start crying, so I interject.

“It’s actually Connie.”

“Oh, sorry Connie!” She says with an apologetic smile. Connie doesn’t even respond. He must still be in shock.

“You guys wanna come inside?” Mina asks, motioning towards the door. Everybody nods in agreement and starts walking. I turn around and notice that Connie hasn’t moved an inch. I sigh and turn around to see if he’s ok.

“C’mon, Connie. She got most of your name right…” Connie wrapped his arms around my waist and pressed his face against me. He let out a muffled noise, somewhere in between a cry and a scream.

“She didn’t remember my naaaame!” Connie yells. Somehow I’m able to understand his muffled voice, and I pat him on his head.

“It’s alright, man! You’ve only met her once! She won’t do it again, I guarantee it!” Connie let’s go of me and sniffs. He wipes his eyes and gained his composure.

“I’m ok, I’m ok.” He says.

“Are you guys coming or what?” Mina yells from the doors to the girls’ dorm.

“We’re coming now!” I yell back. I grab Connie and we speed walk to the dorm.

“What happened to your shirt?” Mina asks, pointing her finger at wet spots on my shirt.

“O-oh. I spilled some water earlier.” I lie. Mina just shrugs her shoulders and we walk into the building. Everyone is already sitting down near each other. Connie sits next to Marco, and I sit next to Connie. I look around at everyone and notice that there are a few people that I don’t recognize.

Mina sits down next to one of the mystery people. “Everyone,” she starts, “This is Christa.”

“Hello.” Christa says with a smile. She’s incredibly gorgeous; her shoulder-length blonde hair and blue eyes gave her a sweet, innocent appearance.

We all say hello to her and allow Mina to keep talking. “Next to her is her girlfriend Ymir.”

Ymir gives us a passive wave, not even making eye contact with anyone. Her eyes are as cold as ice, and she has her arm wrapped around Christa almost protectively.

Nonetheless, we give her the same greeting we gave Christa. “And that,” Mina says, “is Hannah.”

Hannah gives us a wave and smiles. Freckles are speckled over her cheeks in practically the same place as Marco. Her freckles accompanied by her red hair and Hazel eyes give her a southern look. She’s snuggled up against Franz. “In case you haven’t guessed, Franz is my boyfriend.” she laughs.

“Isn’t she cute?” Franz says before kissing her on the cheek. Hannah just smiles and laughs even more.

“I swear everyone’s got someone but me…” Connie mutters next to me. I nudge him with my elbow to tell him to be quiet. He crosses his arms and pouts.

We sit in the girls’ dorm for quite some time just talking to each other. Ymir doesn’t talk very much at first, but when she warms up to us, she becomes very talkative. She even cuts Christa off in the middle of a story to finish it for her. If that happened to me, I would get angry. Christa, however, just smiles through it. I guess by this time she’s used to it. Ymir and I actually happen to be pretty similar. She’s sarcastic like me, and we have similar tastes in music.

Hannah turns out to be really friendly as well. She seems to be genuinely interested in what you’re saying as you talk. Most of the time she just listens to you, but when she starts talking, it’s hard to make her stop. She can talk for hours on end if you let her. Thankfully, Franz is good at realizing when she should stop and finds a way to cut her off.

“I’m getting kind of hungry.” I mention passively.

“Yeah, let’s go grab some food!” Ymir said.

Connie and Sasha were the first ones to get up. “Let’s go to that crappy pizza place again!” Sasha shouts.

“Definitely!” Connie agrees.

“Why are you guys so excited to go to a place that you just said is crappy?” Franz asks.

Sasha and Connie look at each other. “You’ll see.” They say in unison. After that, we’re on our way there.

* * *

 

“I’m never gonna get with anyoooone!” Connie whines next to me. “Is it me? Do I give off some kind of aura?”

“Yeah. An aura of stupidity.”

“Jeeeaaann!! I’m being serious here!”

“C’mon, man, you’ll be with someone in no time!”

“Easy for you to say! You’re already in a relationship!”

A grin forms on my face. “Yeah, I am.” I’m lucky to be with Thomas. He’s a great boyfriend. Speaking of Thomas…I haven’t heard from him in a while. Shit! I forgot to call him again! I pull my phone out of my pocket and look at the screen. Four missed calls, all of them from Thomas. Fuck! I’m a terrible boyfriend!

“Jean, you gotta te-“

“Shut up Connie, I have to make a phone call!”

I quickly call Thomas and hold the phone close to my ear. I pray that he’s not busy. After a few minutes, I hear his voice.

“You’ve reached Thomas Wagner! I can’t get to the phone right now, but I’ll call you back as soon as I can! Leave a message after the beep!”

“Shit!” I say under my breath.

“Who did you even call?”

“Thomas…He’s been trying to call me today and my phone’s been on silent…”

“Wow. You must be, like, the worst boyfriend ever.”

I punch Connie in the arm as hard as I can. He groans in pain, but he deserved it after that comment. It’s not my fault! I just forgot…Things have been pretty lively around here. It’s not like I’m doing it on purpose.

I turn the sound on my phone on and put it back in my pocket.

“We’re here, guys!” Sasha shouts from a ways down the street.

“Really? This is the place? I see why you said crappy now.” Ymir complains. “Are you sure you’re ok eating here, Christa?”

Christa giggles. “Yeah, it’s alright. It looks quaint. I like the feeling it gives off.”

“Whatever you say…”

We all walk into the store, and Hanji greets us again.

“Hey guys! Oh, I see you brought more custo-, I mean people with you!” She looks up at a tall, muscular man standing next to her. “They brought more people!” She grins.

The man next to her has blonde hair and light blue eyes. By the looks of it, his muscles are a match for Reiner’s, and he’s just as tall as Bertholdt. He could probably snap me like a toothpick. He doesn’t seem like such a bad guy.

He looks down at Hanji. “So they did.” He says nonchalantly. He looks towards us and smiles. His smile is warm and friendly, and his teeth are blindingly white. “Please, enjoy.” He says before turning around and walking through two doors that lead further into the store.

Our attention turns back to Hanji as her voice permeates the silence. “So, what’ll it be today, people?” She asks happily.

Sasha puts her hand up. “Don’t worry guys, I got this!”

“Wow, thanks Sasha!” I say surprised.

“What? Oh, Jean, I’m not paying for it! I’ll just handle the ordering! Leave it to me!”

I should’ve known…. Mina finds the biggest table in the restaurant, and we leave Sasha to order the food and pile into the chairs surrounding it.

Sasha walks back to the table with a grin on her face. “Alright, I ordered 5 pizzas: Pepperoni, Sausage, Cheese, Mushroom, and Bacon.”

“Do we really need five pizzas?” I say a little agitated.

“Of course! If I remember right, Connie and I can probably eat them all by ourselves! But, I ordered a lot so that you guys can have some if we don’t eat so much!” I shoot her a glare and put my head on the table.

“Aw, don’t be upset with her, Jean.” Marco laughs. “That’s just how Sasha is.”

I sigh and look towards him. “I don’t know how you deal with it…”

“Oh, she’s a really good friend! She’s nice, fun, and energetic!”

“I see the energetic part…”

Marco laughs and pats me on the back. “You’ll warm up to her.”

After a while of talking to each other, our food arrives at the table. It probably (definitely) would’ve been quicker if Sasha hadn’t ordered a million pizzas, but it all works out. Sasha and Connie probably ate the equivalent of 3 pizzas, leaving the rest for us. Marco, being the Good Samaritan that he is, only ate one piece so that others could have more. Of course, Christa did the same, but that’s just because her girlfriend was the one eating the rest of the pizza. The rest of us were lucky to get two pieces.

* * *

 

We spend a couple hours at the restaurant. After we’re finished there, we walk around the area for a while. Eventually we find our way to the boys’ dorm.

“And then Franz had to jump into the pool!” Hannah laughs.

We all laugh at her story, but I think on the inside everyone is wondering why she finds accidently setting her boyfriend on fire at a barbecue to be so funny.

“Oh, and then this one time-“

“You know what, I think it’s about time we all got back to our dorms, dont’cha think?” Franz interrupts. Everyone nervously looks around and nods in agreement, attempting to avoid another hour long story from Hannah.

“Y’know what?” Ymir says, “We should all go to a club tomorrow night! We walked passed one on our way over here. Classes are going to be starting soon, and we should do something like this before we’re all buried in homework. What do ya say?”

“That sounds like a great idea!” Christa chimes in. “Doesn’t that sound like fun, guys?”

“Yeah, I’m up for it.” I say. Everyone else agrees and we plan to meet in front of the place around 9:00. I look over at Marco who seems very nervous. That makes sense, I guess. He isn’t really that partying type.

Everyone says their goodbyes and expresses their excitement for the next night. “You guys want to come up to our room?” Franz asks.

Marco and I exchange glances. I don’t think either of us want to hear the two of them gloat over beating us. “N-no,” I tell them, “I think we’re just going to head to our dorm.”

“Yeah, you should keep what little pride you have left to yourself.” Connie sniggers

“Oh shut the fuck up!” I yell at him. I hear Marco laughing from behind me and deliver a swift punch to his shoulder.

“Ooowww, Jean!” He whines.

“Well then don’t laugh at me! I beat you every time!”

“Well you actually play video games.”

“Ugh, shut up! C’mon, let’s go.” I grab Marco’s arm and pull him through the doors leaving the lobby area. We walk down the hallway and go up the stairs.

“My arm still hurts.” Marco pouts.

“Well whose fault is that?” I snarl. I grab the handle to our dorm room and open the door. On my bed, Bertholdt is on his back, and Reiner is hovered over him and kissing him. “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GUYS DOING HERE!?” I yell.

Reiner looks over at me and grins. “Well, we were waiting for you, bu-“

Bertholdt pushes Reiner off of him. His face is bright red. “W-we came here looking for you guys, b-but when we came in you weren’t here. We decided to wait for you, but Reiner got antsy...”

“SO YOU DECIDED TO DO IT ON MY BED!?”

“Hey, we didn’t do it.” Reiner chimes in.

“If I hadn’t come in when I did, you probably would have!”

Reiner chuckled to himself. “Yeah, you’re probably right…”

“Reiner!” Bertholdt cries.

I grab one of my shirts from off the floor and chuck it at his face. He cringes and throws the shirt back on the ground.

“Damn, I think it’s time you did some laundry!” He says with a disgusted tone.

“Oh shut it! Both of you get off my bed!” Bertholdt practically jumps off the bed, while Reiner takes his sweet time. “Now why the hell are you two here in the first place?”

“Well, we felt bad about ditchin’ ya earlier! We wanted to stop by and hang out!”

I roll my eyes. “That’s really ok. If you want to hang out, then why don’t you come with us tomorrow night? We’re going to a club that’s not too far from here.”

“A club? Hell yeah! We’ll be there!”

“W-wait!” Bertholdt says. “Who’s we?”

“Oh, just Connie, a couple of Marco’s friends, and some other people that we’ve met while here. No biggie.”

“If you say so. Well, we should probably leave, then. I guess we’ll see you guys tomorrow night.”

Reiner pats me on the back with a grin as he leaves the room. I would’ve fallen down if I hadn’t held onto the wall next to me. I think he did that on purpose…

Marco waves at Reiner and Bert as they leave the room and he shuts the door. “Well, that was interesting.” He says with a little chuckle.

“I can’t believe they almost had sex on my bed!”

“Almost doesn’t count, Jean.”

“I think it definitely counts in this situation….How am I gonna sleep!?”

I feel Marco’s hand on my shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” He chuckles. “We should probably get to bed, so you should figure it out quickly.”

“Oh fu-“

Don’t wanna be an American Idiot!

“What in the world is that noise?”

“That, my friend, would be Green Day.”

Don’t want a nation under the new media!

I pull my phone out of my pocket. “It also happens to be my ringtone.”

“Well turn it off, it’s awf-“

“Shh! It’s Thomas, I have to get this!”

And can you hear the s-

“Hello? Thomas?”

“Jean! Finally!”

“I know, I know! I’m sorry, my morning was busy again!”

“I see…It’s ok, babe. At least we can talk now.”

“Yeah! I’ve missed you so much. What have you been doing up till now?”

I talk with Thomas for about 15 minutes. He tells me that he spent most of the day with his roommate Eren and his friends Mikasa and Armin. I tell him about my day and what I plan to do tomorrow.

“Alright then, I won’t call you tomorrow night,” he says.

“Yeah, sorry. It’d be pretty difficult to talk in there, and I imagine we’ll be in there all night.”

“That’s alright, babe. I’ll call you in the morning, though.”

“Okay, talk to you then. Bye.” I hang up the phone and turn to Marco. His face looks like he’s not fully here with me. Like he’s deep in thought or something. “Sorry about that.” I say.

Marco stirs. “Huh? Oh, no, it’s ok!” A few moments later, the look returns to his face. “It must be nice to have that kind of relationship with someone…”

“Huh? Well, I guess so…”

“Oh, never mind!” Marco says nervously. “We should get to bed!”

“…yeah.” Marco climbs in his bed and I turn out the lights.

“Good night, Jean.”

“Night, Marco.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All introductions for new characters should be over for now! (Though I make no promises...) I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'm so happy I got to include Franz and Hannah! I have never seen them in a fic before, and I have no clue why. They are not appreciated enough. I'm sorry it's going so slow, but that's just how it has to be for now. It will start to pick up eventually, and when it does you better hold on to something! Chapters may start to come out much later since school starts tomorrow..I promise I won't desert this fic, though! This school year is going to be very difficult, and I won't have much free time, but the chapters will be out in due time! Feedback and criticism is always appreciated! You can contact me here or on my Tumblr. Thanks for reading!


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